A guy named Jo

Everton has been forced to play without a true forward for almost two months, but that ended to today with the appearance of the Brazilian striker Jo (JoÃ£o Alves de Assis Silva). The 21 year-old, who has already appeared for the great Brazilian national team, cost Manchester City 19 million pounds last fall, far more than Everton has ever paid for a player. Fortunately, he cost us nothing, coming to Merseyside on loan after scoring only 3 goals in 13 matches (two of them against a weak team from Cyprus) at City.

It was a different story today, though. Jo tallied two in our 3-0 victory over Bolton. He made our first goal by drawing a penalty, scored a superb second, and notched the third from the penalty spot.

This was not a typical, grind-it-out Everton victory. We thoroughly dominated a normally half-decent Bolton side, maintaining 63 percent of the possession and outshooting the Trotters by a margin of 25-9.

It turns out that soccer is easier if you play with a natural forward.